Dawn's F*#$ Cancer

To all that it may concern;
 I am Lana Fretz-Mason, Dawn's mother and I know that she would never ask for help but I am here to say that they need it desperately. Many have stated get good insurance through Obama care, but she is unable to get insurance that does not have a high deductible. Their finances are maxed out, Cris is working everyday and Dawn is working from home against Doctors orders to try and keep their heads above water. I would not be asking for help if it was not needed. 

Thank you,
Lana


Here is her story. 

A month ago I got tested for epstein barr virus again with hopes the levels had gone down, only to realize they had gotten worse. This brings a total of 11 months sick with this awful disease. Two weeks ago I got a cold and within 2 days it became bronchitis. My immune is so compromised that strong antibiotics aren't helping me fight this. Constant fevers, chest rattling, coughing fits that make me vomit, inability to breathe... to top it off the meds are ruining my gut health creating gi issues. 

Now to an even more difficult topic...
For over two months now I have been seeing this white flashing light in my periphery. It was super annoying, and it started getting worse to where it was taking up half my vision in my left eye. I decided to go an see an eye Dr 2 weeks ago. He looked and what he saw appeared to be my retina detaching. He immediately sent me in for emergency surgery to try and save my vision. The surgeon looked in my eye and said well I have good news you have what we call a freckle in your eye so no surgery needed today. BUT... you also have a mass that is pressing on your retina so I want you to follow up with an oncologist. He said it's most likely nothing and the chances of it being anything other than a "mole" are slim. BUT.. with how young I am and the size I need to get in immediately. 

I cannot explain the awful emotions my mind took me through for the next 4 days till my oncology appt. I vomited every day probably out of pure stress of not knowing. 

Tuesday August 16th woke up at 4am with 103.1 fever, throat burned so bad that nothing helped, slight cough.. went to work anyways ... was sent home. 
Went to urgent care to find out that with epstein barr virus lasting more then 2 months I should have been seeing an immunologist. There they would have monitored my blood every two weeks checking on my T & B cells. Apparently mono will become active and then start going dormant after a week and I would still feel the effects after 6 weeks but then it's done. Somehow my body is either reactivating it over and over again (which would make sense why the levels went higher) or its just never went away. Regardless, the dr said it can become deadly and ruin my blood cells and eventually turn into lymphoma. With my body being so weak she put me on strong antibiotics to combat a simple cold. She couldn't explain why I have a new problem "allergies" (or hay fever she called it)for the last 5 months so bad so that I'm on 3 different allergy meds with Flonase and an inhaler except that my body is tired of fighting. 

Wednesday August 17th woke up not being able to breathe, hear, smell, taste, with a fever of 103.5... now fever will not go away at all... it breaks into sweat and then just heats right back up, determined to go to my oncology appt I dose myself with every over the counter drug known to man. 2:45pm I receive drops in my eyes to dilate them, sitting there I look up and see this beautiful serene picture of water with mountains in the distance and thought wow I would really like that in my house. So I snapped a picture. 3:00 I do a vision test, 3:10 Dr comes in to look at my left eye. 3:13 Dr takes a step back and says you have what looks like melanoma in your eye. Would you mind if we put iodine in your blood so we can get a better look? 3:20 her assistant gets more photos of the spot in question and asks the dr to look at the results. 3:30 confirmed melanoma in my left eye. 
The dr goes on to say that I am very lucky to have found this because by the time it effects someones sight it is too late. Now there are 5 steps we need to do she says... at this time things start to fade into a distance and I find myself just staring at her... I start coming back into focus when I hear radiation therapy and realize that this is really happening. 

So here is the plan... Sept 8th I will be going into surgery where they will be placing a disc filled with radiation seeds over the malignancy for a week, after the week they will remove the disc. I will end up with cataracts in 3-4 months but they will fix that when it happens. They should be able to save my sight but the malignancy is pressing on my retina and the white spots are turning into darkness so I am pretty scared. My vision is becoming blurred and the radiation will not be able to shrink the spot for 2 years. Tomorrow I will be doing a PET scan to ensure the cancer has not spread to any other part of my body. 
They have to closely monitor my eye every 3-4 months for the next 5 years. We don't have any answers on how or why... or if it is what has caused the mono or vice versa... no answers, except I have cancer, here is what we need to do to fix it and that is it!
Now here is the kicker ... Thursday August 18th cold turned into Bronchitis ... still taking current meds Sunday Aug 21st on my nebulizer now for 2 days still can't breathe and now back to urgent care... even stronger meds are prescribed, chest xray verifies bronchitis but thank God no pneumonia... they said after this bout of meds if this has still not cleared up I have to go to the ER. 
AND... My Cancer Physician says they will not do surgery if I am not better. This has been fucking awful to say the least! I am so tired, and I have days, moments where I do not feel like I can keep hurting the way I do. I am mixed with all sorts of emotions but I have faith I will kick this Cancers Ass as well as all the other sickness I've endured!

I don't know why this is happening but I am lucky to have such an amazing support system.